Thursday 15 December 2016

Random Access Memory #5

You know how in my last post I mentioned that many years ago I was working with rufty tufty seadogs and middle-aged mariners, who’d travelled the ocean waves on massive cargo carrying vessels?   I have them to thank for introducing me to many different things.

Different things like...  being shown around the hot, noisy depths of a ship’s engine room by a very polite (and not rufty tufty at all) boiler-suited Panamanian engineer.  Like how to make Cheese Beano*.  Like speaking to Eamonn Holmes doing role play for an emergency exercise (whoop-de-do!)  (and that's the first and only time you'll hear me say 'Eamonn Holmes' and 'role play' in the same sentence.)  And being teased about something called the Golden Rivet.  I was told that male sailors like to show female visitors on board their ships the famed Golden Rivet – in naval folklore the story goes that every vessel built contains one single commemorative one - but, oh, you have to find it! (It wasn't in the hot, noisy depths of that aforementioned ship's engine room, as far as I could tell.)  It was through this job that I took my first ever flight, and it was to New York!  Plus I heard a lot of tales, about a  lot of people and a lot of places.  One of the places was Singapore, a major port on the shipping trade route.

I’d never really thought about going to Singapore until then, but in the mid-‘90s I’d  hit a bit of a strange time in my life, a kind of personal, emotional crossroads, and something I decided I needed to do was to go away for a while.  Nothing extreme, you know - just an eleven and a half thousand mile trip on my own to the other side of the world.   On the way to Australia and NZ  I planned a short stay in Singapore  and, thanks to contacts I’d made through my job, there were people there who’d  be happy to show me around this city I’d heard so much about.

I’d never done any teenage travelling, hadn’t gone to uni, couldn't afford a 'gap' year, never had the urge to backpack, and had married someone with no desire to venture further than Cornwall.  I was in my early 30s and now I had that itch.  So I worked really hard, saved up like mad, and asked my boss if I could carry some leave over into next year and then take it all in one go – five weeks' holiday.  Being a globetrotting ex sea Captain (and now a great lifelong friend) he understood my urge to see more of the world and agreed.

Anyway, this is the background to why every time I hear a certain song, I think of Singapore.   I just can’t separate the memory.  More specifically, I think of a huge shopping mall (‘Ngee Ann City’), at that time only a couple of years old, and of standing in this vast modern complex with a ‘Japanese fair’ pitched up at one end (selling exotic-sounding dried fruits and meat dishes) and a branch of ‘Boy’ of all things at another, being shown round by a man called Ong and his wife Theresa, who later took me to a Pizza Hut where we had something called ‘golden corn soup’ for starters.

 In that quite overwhelming shrine to the Western art of shopping in a humid city state in South East Asia, 6800 miles away from home, there was an enormous video screen and beaming out of it, with the volume up full, was the eyecatching film for The Cranberries' single Zombie.

I would include that official video here, but Blogger won't let me, so instead here are a couple of images as a reminder,




plus a link in case you can access this way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts


and also a really fantastic performance of the song from Saturday Night Live 1995:


I love it.

Well, it just seemed really bizarre to hear this rousing, alternately fragile and powerful, angry, sad, beautifully brooding, spine-tingling song at that moment, in that alien place. I was on the other side of the world, in an unfamiliar city with a different culture, and there was a 20ft - 30ft? -  high Dolores O’Riordan sprayed in gold** – plus  the cross, Belfast, the soldiers - a song written about the Troubles, in memory of two young boys killed by the IRA.  It seemed entirely at odds, and that’s perhaps why that weird juxtaposition has stayed with me ever since.  ‘Zombie’ will forever conjure up that unlikely place and time, an early evening in a brightly lit Singaporean shopping centre -  and it will always sound great and moving to me, too.  It's one of those songs.


*one of the shipping world’s favourite dishes: beans on toast with cheese on the top then grilled (sometimes also with ham or corned beef)


** I've just realised that, quite by coincidence, this post contains golden rivets, golden corn soup and a golden Dolores O'Riordan.

14 comments:

  1. I'm glad you got to travel, sometimes we need a change of scene. Zombie is a memorable song and reminds me of PE at school in the mid 90s. I only knew the voice and had no clue what she looked like. The video I discovered years later.

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    1. Thanks Chris, yes I got my change of scene - Singapore / Australia / NZ - a great experience. Indeed such a memorable song - I'm sure you thought the same about the video once you'd seen it too.

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  2. Great to hear some memories of your travels C. You've alluded to this jaunt in the past, but (unless I've missed it) never directly addressed it directly until now.
    I'm not sure if we had any globetrotting sailors further back in our family's history, but my Mum used to make a mean version of the dish you mention, which she always referred to as a 'cheesey beano'.

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    1. Thanks TS. In five weeks I had quite lot of interesting times so may mention more here in future but just must make sure it doesn't end up being like having to look through someone's holiday snaps whilst stifling a yawn!
      Ah the famous Cheese or Cheesey Beano - perhaps it's more widespread than I realised - but then again we are, after all, an inherently maritime land, with naval traditions and phrases a vital part of our culture! Lovely anyway, innit!

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  3. I love this kind of memory where something like a specific song stays with you for ever because of the juxtaposition, that it was so out of kilter with where you were. That must have been an amazing trip C - glad you were able to go travelling in the end. As for The Cranberries, they were around at that time in the '90s when Ireland could do no wrong - It had all this great music, Dublin was "the" place to visit, great films, Celtic jewellery was everywhere and they just kept on winning the Eurovision Song Contest (sorry for mentioning it but true!).

    Really liked Dolores' voice and everything they did.

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    1. Thanks Alyson, yes it was some trip and yes - hadn't really thought about the Irish thing until you mentioned it but you're so right. Ah, Johnny Logan!!

      I didn't really investigate the Cranberries much further than this but maybe I should - she has such a distinctive voice and this was just such a classic, perfect song.

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  4. Mrs CC went to Australia on a solo mission to see her aunt before I knew here
    She stopped off in Singapore went for a couple of Singapore Slings and couldn't remember the name of her hotel

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    1. That is a funny, yet scary story. Mrs. CC sounds like quite a character (and I mean that in the most positive sense!)

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    2. Haha, brilliant! Good for Mrs CC! I had one Singapore Sling while I was out there (same night as the above as it happens, in a hotel I wasn't staying in... I did find my way back to mine though afterwads, mind you may have had something to do with its name: 'The Cockpit'!)

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  5. I really enjoyed this video/song, C - immensely! I'll be playing it a few times.

    I think it's amazing that you left Mr. SDS at home and travelled to such an exotic locale. We must hear more!

    The nearest I came to your experience was when I went to England in 1998 by myself for a month. I found work through a temp agency at the University of London that could have become permanent, so I was a little conflicted when it was time to return home. Mr. Vintage Spins was worth going back to, but as "corny" as this might sound, my spiritual home will always be in England. I do think that I played it too safe by choosing London as my base though. (I knew I'd have no trouble finding work there - but really I should have risked a smaller town.)

    It's wonderful having partners who aren't threatened by such departures.

    I hope you and Mr. SDS have a lovely holiday, C. Thanks for everything!

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    1. Ah thanks Marie, so glad you enjoyed the song and video, always great to share stuff we might otherwise have missed out on, as I can so often say re. yours.

      Also appreciate that you did a similar thing with your trip to London, no mean feat - and working there as well (mine was purely leisure!) I know how much you love this little corner of the world so perhaps one day you'll come again.

      Thank you too and have a lovely Christmas/ New Year. I hope to post something during the week if I get chance.

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  6. Well done C for travelling on your own to the fabulous East. I have often been to places abroad when I worked. The thing I missed most of all was to share it with someone. I's no fun being in a Restaurant alone or visiting a famous place. Saying that I have no problem drinking alone.

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    1. Thanks Old Pa, but certainly nothing as exciting or eventful as your adventurous travel tales (and no solo drinking but I did at least have a Singapore Sling)

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  7. If this was the first time I heard this song, I'd probably just be so stunned I wouldn't be able to get out of my chair.

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